This project was born out of my desire to build a bridge that connects how the fate of the oceans could eventually lead to possibly the death of mankind, rather than the common depictions of marine life being destroyed by plastic pollution.

Syrena represents marine life being tangled, suffocated, and killed by a plastic ocean - again, an image we commonly associate with plastic pollution. So I put Benjamin Kheng, a personality we all so love to represent mankind right next to her. Totally different subject, same environment, same fate. I wanted to capture the struggle and finally the end of both 'species'.

​

The 'plastic ocean' was created by stringing single-use plastic wastes together to form plastic kelps. These trash included plastic bottles, plastic bags, bubble tea cups, and plastic containers. It was a really interesting experience reaching my hands into trash bins collecting rubbish while many onlookers just stared at me weirdly.

But it was worth the effort, as my hope is that this angle will prove to be more effective in raising awareness that not just our beautiful marine life are dying from plastic pollution but us too. The time has come that the harm we've done to our environment is indeed coming to bite us back.

Simple practices to cut down the usage of single-use plastics on a day-to-day basis would go a long way and we Singaporeans have quite a lot to catch-up on improving said practices.

If we continue doing what we do, we are headed for the lamest apocalypse. We aren't going to die from something cool like a zombie apocalypse, or something tragic like a WW3, but instead, we are going to die from bubble tea cups and plastic bottles that everyone has been contributing to.

​

𝐓𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦:

I've been very blessed to be surrounded by very good hearted people and because of that, found it easy to quickly gather a team of passionate individuals who'd come together and work on projects with me for a good cause like the one I worked on last year in Bali with Victoria Cheng and Paul Foster in Bali to promote for shark conservation. And that is why I continue to do what I do.

The shots were done at the beautiful The NCO Club @ JW Marriott and I would like to thank them for lending their support to this good cause. I'd also like to thank Scuba People who played an integral role in ensuring the safety of our talents, and to Victoria Sim for again being part of another project of mine and making such an amazing behind-the-scenes video.

My two amazing talents, Syrena and Benjamin Kheng, thank you for being so patient with me and being so passionate in wanting to spread this awareness, my makeup artist Dominique Andrea, and last but not least, the crew, Jared Lo, Josh Chou, Zakir Hamid, Joseph Arison and Lu Shi Hui, couldn't have done this without you.

​

Location: The NCO Club @ JW Marriott Hotel Singapore South Beach
Logistics Support: ScubaPeople
Talents: Benjamin Kheng & Syrena- Singapore's First Mermaid
Videography: Victoria Sim
Makeup: Andreajoandom - MakeupArtist
Supported by: Aquatica Digital & Aquatica Asia
Crew: Jared Joel David Lo, Josh Chou, Zakir Hamid, ShuHui Lu and Joseph Mak Arison

Media Features: Saltine Communications